Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
The death of Pattie’s Heart Healthy has been greatly exaggerated. After closing at 520 N. Michigan in February 1997 – thanks to the Nordstrom project – the health-conscious eatery moved two months later to a snazzier location on Michigan Avenue.
Finding a good Thai restaurant in the suburbs isn’t an easy feat. So when you find one that you like, you want to share the news. Frankly, I never knew that the Bangkok Cafe of Arlington Heights existed, even though it’s located just a couple miles east of Woodfield Shopping Center (which I know very well). But there it lies, tucked away in a small strip shopping center at the corner of Golf and Arlington Heights in the northwest suburbs.
I’d never really thought of sushi as a to-go option like I do with Chinese, Thai or Italian. But when you’re craving an uncluttered, fresh and filling meal, sushi – bite-sized creations based on flavored rice and other ingredients, often raw fish – makes a delicious change of pace from a burger and fries.
You have died and gone to heaven. You are inside the West Town factory where Fannie May and Fanny Farmer chocolates are manufactured, and you are thisclose to vats of caramel, chocolate and pecans. Never mind that there is a TV crew filming a news segment (there are no public tours), and you’ve been spotted wearing a hairnet and a white lab coat with the name “Catherine” embroidered over your pocket. Never mind that you’re not Catherine.
I always had a prejudice against pre-packaged sandwiches. Somehow, they always looked like they should be in a machine, waiting for some hungry soul to plop in a few quarters and liberate them.
My mission, if I chose to accept it, was to try Seattle Sutton’s Healthy Eating program for a month. The goal wasn’t to lose weight, but to see if a fast food junkie such as myself could train herself to eat nutritious meals if they were cooked and delivered to me. It sounded good. Basically, all I had to do was chew, so I happily accepted the challenge.
When you’re really, really hungry, the last thing you want to do is pore over a takeout menu that’s longer than a Stephen King novel. On days like that, Bandera is the answer. Boasting a concise menu of hearty treats ranging from tasty salads to spicy jambalaya to a thick, tender steak filet, Bandera hasn’t given my tastebuds a bad experience yet. It’s one thing to get a delicious meal in a restaurant, but Bandera’s food translates well when carrying out, too.
When Jim Ho decided to open Pacific Cafe during the Around the Coyote weekend, he knew his Asian eatery would get good exposure. What he didn’t realize was that his restaurant would go over so well that there literally would be no food left in his restaurant at closing time Sunday.
I had passed by Pasta Cucina many times on my way to the Three Penny Theatre. But because I was always late, I never stepped in until a friend told me that the food there was out of this world.
If you live in the suburbs, you know how difficult it can be to find good ethnic food without driving to Chicago. That was a complaint Bonnie Ma heard many times from friends and customers. So when the restaurateur decided to open another Midori – which specializes in Japanese cuisine – she selected northwest suburban Mount Prospect as her site.
A tiny storefront diner that serves only breakfast and lunch, seven days a week, the Cozy Cafe lives up to its intimate name.
Have you ever had one of those weeks when you just had too much to do but not enough time to get everything done? It was for just such times that the owners of Scatchell’s designed their strip mall in Cicero, which includes a pizzeria, car wash and laundromat.
One afternoon, a friend and I were trolling for food after catching a matinee at the Music Box Theatre. Just a couple of blocks away from the cinema, we saw a quaint restaurant called the Banana Leaf Kitchen with a sign promising noodles, fried rice and curry.
You gotta wonder about a restaurant named after an illegal drink. So it was with curiosity that I ventured to the oh-so-hip Cafe Absinthe.
Grrrrrrrumble!!!! The noise you hear is the collective hunger pangs of wannabe patrons waiting for a table at Shiroi Hana. The line outside the Japanese restaurant is long and winding. There is no band playing. And as far as I can tell, there are no celebrities inside to bother, either.
It’s 10 a.m. Saturday and there’s already a line at Leo’s Lunchroom. But no one seems cranky. Hungry, yes. Crabby, no.
I lost my headache at Jane’s. Let me explain. The first time I ate at the Bucktown restaurant, I reacted in typical American horror when the waitress seated my friend and me right next to the only other couple in the restaurant. But too embarrassed to ask to be moved farther away, we sat there and made the best of it and ended up having a fabulous time.
Earwax isn’t the most appetizing name for a cafe/record and video store. But it is a pretty darned catchy one.
Place: No Exit. Time: Just about anytime, but try Sunday afternoons around 4. Why: Because it’s a lot of fun, there’s free jazz music and the coffee is killer.
I’ll be the first to admit I had a bias about Lulu’s the first time I went there for dim sum, the traditional Chinese brunch where diners sample small portions of many dishes. First of all, there’s nothing traditional about Lulu’s. It’s in Evanston, which doesn’t have a large Chinese population. Second, I didn’t see any Asian chefs. And third, does a place named Lulu’s really sound like it would have good dim sum?